July of this year started just like July of last year…in Memphis hanging with the Graffam crew. Last year it was three Graffams and this year it was 5! We love Simon and James and they are growing up so fast! All of the cousins are growing up too fast! Eli and Nora had a good time each day riding to and from school since Nora let Eli go to preschool with her that week so that the Dads could work and the moms and daughters could run around and do fun things. We hit many of our favorite Memphis spots: Memphis Pizza Cafe, Central BBQ, and Soul Fish. And…we tried some new places: The new Bass Pro Shop, Gus’s Fried Chicken, and Jerry’s Sno Cones. All fan favorites that will receive a return visit in the future!
The highlight of our time in Memphis is always just getting to spend time together. With so many young kids, quick weekend trips don’t happen much…so we soak up the time when we are together. The added bonus this trip was that Uncle Kevin and Aunt Marina were in town on a visit from where the ARMY has them stationed in Germany. We didn’t get to see them for long…but we were so glad to have even a short visit!
Once we returned home, it was the end of my summer vacation and I headed back to school. Emma started Princess Camp at NCCS and Eli started at a new preschool. We are a month in and he seems a lot happier at the new place, so we are grateful for options! The second weekend in July, we headed out to Berry Patch Farms in Woodstock to pick blueberries. Eli loves Blueberries…so much so that we are surprised that he isn’t turning blue! Berry Patch was a blast. We were out there for a little over an hour in the blazing sun and picked a whopping two pounds of blueberries…but we had a blast and made some fun memories. The following morning we made homemade blueberry pancakes before church. We are still enjoying the blueberries weeks later!
We spent lots of time playing outside, hanging out at the pool with friends, and eating out at a variety of places around town. Our sweet neighbors moved away, but they left us with their pretty awesome plasma cars. We have spent many evenings in the basement playing Plasma Car dodgeball…so much fun!
The highlight of the month was definitely heading up to Summerville for the day to visit with Uncle Billy and then to the lake to visit Granna and Poppy for the rest of the day. It’s always relaxing to visit Summerville and catch up.
Clint and I both had a Friday off and we used the time just for Emma. Since Eli is two, he definitely requires a lot of our attention…attention that we gladly give. But…sometimes we like to do special things just with Emma. On our special day, we used our Wakeboarding Park passes we had purchased at the end of the previous summer. We had so much fun falling over and over and over again. Clint finally made a few laps around the lake…Emma and I just kept falling…but it was so fun! After that, we spent the afternoon at the Canton Y pool and water slide. It was a really fun day with our girl. And…Eli was so happy to see us when we picked him up!
The month wrapped up with our annual Upper School Faculty Family cookout at our house. It is such a joy for me to be a part of such an amazing team at North Cobb Christian School. Several years ago we started hosting the whole crew for dinner at our house before the school year started. This year we had 76 people over for dinner. It is such a treasure to spend that time with our team before the school year gets too crazy. I love that my kids get to grow up with the kids of the people that I have such a blast serving with everyday! Clint, Emma, Eli and I are so blessed to be a part of the NCCS family!
The last day of July is always a favorite in our house as we celebrate Clint’s birthday! This year we went to Doug’s in Emerson. That is one of Clint’s favorites and we all enjoyed it! Since the YETI cups are all the rage, we got Clint one of those cups…just in time for our family to commit to drinking only water for the school year. This is a year of shedding excess in a lot of areas of our life. Stay tuned for more on that.
We are so grateful for the way the Lord has blessed our family. This was an incredible summer and we are looking forward to a great school year!
